Mickadeit: Agran decries loss of control

On Monday, Larry Agran and Beth Krom used a hastily called Great Park Board meeting to lament the changes the other three members of the Irvine City Council likely will enact Tuesday night.

The new majority is proposing the termination of two longtime no-bid contracts, authorization of an audit of the GP books and elimination of the four GP directors not on the council.

As I listened to Agran and Krom decry the injustice of removing the four at-large directors and thereby excluding the rest of O.C. from a measure of GP control, I had two thoughts: 1) For all nine years of the GP board's life, control vested in anyone except Agran and Krom was no more than a pretense, and 2) when there was any chance for power-sharing outside of Argan's circle, he killed it.

The seeds of something less than countywide governance were planted from the moment the county Board of Supervisors let slip the chance to take control of the old El Toro base. Irvine and Agran stepped up with a Great Park plan, which was sold to the voters via Measure W in 2002.

The initial GP board structure of governance called for just two Irvine city members and between five and 28 outside board members – meaning citizens were under the impression the Irvine City Council would not have control.

In 2004, though, the Agran-led board changed the structure so that all five Irvine council members would be on the board, along with a just four outside directors. Regardless of all the deference given to the outside directors, that 2004 vote dictated that forevermore Irvine would control the Great Park. In 2006, the city formally declared that the GP board was merely an adviser to the city.

The county grand jury protested: "(T)hese governance changes are inconsistent with the spirit and intent of Measure W. ... The current structure is especially egregious to the citizens of Orange County because the exercise of control of the Great Park is maintained by a three-member bloc on the Irvine City Council."

Did Agran care then? Nah.

When Agran had a chance to truly share power, he wasn't in favor of it. In 2005, the Board of Supervisors asked if one of its own, Bill Campbell, could have a seat on the board. Nope. There was no way Agran was going to willingly share the stage with a skilled politician who would call him on the obscene no-bid contracts the board was awarding. Agran and Krom also never once in nine years voluntarily rotated any of the four at-large seats to bring in new blood.

It is only now they howl about how voters were misled about diversifying control of the park. What you're really hearing is Agran and Krom lamenting the loss of their control.